Fender Sonoran SCE Review: Acoustic Guitars Under $500 Review Series

In my latest trip to my local music store I tried 3 new guitars costing less than 500. And one of those was the guitar I am reviewing here.

My first impression of the Sonoran SCE was that it looked like it was cheap but my impression had changed a lot by the time I was hanging it back up on the hook.

What this Review Will Cover

In this review I will take a look at the following characteristics of the Sonoran SCW:

Sound (including videos so you can hear it for yourself)

Playability

Who the guitar is most suited to

Whether or not this guitar is value-for-money

The Sound of the Sonoran

As I said, when I first picked this thing up my first impression was that it was cheap.

The tuning pegs looked cheap, it had a cheap glossy look about it and the electric style headstock (with all the tuners on one side of the headstock) just reeked of tacky to me.

Now, I didn’t know what materials the Sonoran had before I picked the guitar up (something I purposefully do on all my reviews so that I am not biased in my opinion) but I got the impression they weren’t very nice ones.

But to my surprise the guitar had a nice tone to it, and was actually quite pleasant to play.

It didn’t have a distinctive sound, which makes sense (now knowing the materials that are used in its construction), but it had an even tone that you could strum pretty hard without it losing its poise and was slightly brighter than it was warm though it wasn’t overly bright but not too warm either.

To my ear I’d say about a 7 out of 10 on the brightness/warmth scale with 1 being muddy as hell and 10 being sharp and tinny.

The Materials

O.k. let’s take a quick look at the materials used and see what you can expect from this guitar.

Shape: Dreadnought – so it can pack a punch – not more than you’d expect from your average dreadnought but enough so that if you want to get some good volume out of it you definitely could.

Top (soundboard): Solid Spruce – not saying you can’t, but when such a high percentage of guitars on the market have a spruce top it’s hard to get a unique sound from a spruce top. Of course you can but the Sonoran doesn’t – but it does have a nice solid sound. The Spruce does however enable a crispness of sound and a large dynamic range.

Back and Sides: Laminated Mahogany – can’t expect solid-wood back and sides on a guitar that costs less than $400.

Saddle & Nut: One of the nice little surprises I got was that the Sonoran SCE has a compensated bone saddle and a bone nut. I’ve seen guitars twice this price with cheap plastic nuts and saddles – so kudos to that!

Bracing: Another pleasant surprise was that it uses Scalloped X Bracing

Bridge: The bridge is made from rosewood – but that is to be expected and when a guitar is cutting costs on the bridge then I’d start to get a little worried. Thankfully that’s not the case here.

Headstock: O.k. there’s no way around it, the tuners look like cheap plastic and they are cheap plastic. Luckily they’re easy to replace, which would be the first modification I would make to this guitar.

And the rest of the headstock, well….. I’m sure it doesn’t affect the sound but it doesn’t do it for me looks-wise. Now don’t get me wrong, I do actually play electric guitar sometimes and that headstock look works on electrics – but on an acoustic it looks like it’s trying too hard.

But that’s completely a personal preference thing and some people think that this is actually a great feature of this guitar so each to their own on that one.

Videos of the Sonoran in Action

Check out the vids below to get an idea of the sound of the Sonoran for yourself.

The first video isn’t in English but it’s the best example of the Sonoran’s sound and you can just skip the non-English speaking parts and just listen to the guitar parts (unless you speak Czech that is).

To my ear this second video makes the guitar sound brighter than it did in real life but it may just be that it’s plugged in. This doesn’t sound as nice as it did to me or as in the first video but for others they might prefer the sound like this? Which would be achievable plugged in and playing with the EQ.

The Sonoran’s Playability

I was pleasantly surprised with how the Sonoran played. The action was still too high for my liking but this is normally the case.

Action

Given its height I was surprised with how nicely it did play. I would still have it lowered (the second modification I would make after changing the tuning pegs) but if you like it a little higher then this might be fine as is.

Neck

The neck is basically like an electric guitar neck. So if you’ve been looking for an acoustic that feels like an electric to play then this could be it. Of course the strings will steel feel different but otherwise it was a lot like playing an electric.

The neck really did feel like an electric and is even made from Maple (which is the most common neck wood for electrics but quite rare on acoustics). Can’t say I liked the look of it – glossy maple necks look good on electrics but not so much on acoustics (in my opinion).

The nut width is 1.69” (43mm) which is a mid- width neck. This is pretty standard and I like this width so that was good. It is a bit odd that the Sonoran S (one without the cutaway and electrics) is 1 5/8 inches (41mm). I’m unsure why they make them with different widths.

Fretboard (Fingerboard)

The fretboard is rosewood so definitely no complaints there. Your typical electric would have maple on the fretboard too (that said there are plenty of electrics with rosewood as well) so using rosewood is definitely a very acoustic quality.

User Reviews

Check out some user reviews at the links below to see what others thought of the Sonoran.

More Info and Where to Buy

If you’re looking for more options in the under $500 range or if you want to see how the Sonoran compared to others in that price range, then check out Six String Acoustics Top 5 under 500 guitars at the link below.>>Six String Acoustic’s Top 5 Guitars Under 500

Comments

Hey thanks for the great review. I got this guitar a few years ago…maybe more than 4+ years and I’ve only started playing more regularly now. I noticed that as it got near the 12th fret the action is high to a point I’m buzzing other strings with my fingers. Could this be a sign that I have not kept this guitar in good condition and it had warped to a point that affected the action or is it just the quality of the guitar? Hope you get this comment and again – great review!

You’re very welcome. I would say that the most likely reason your action is off will be a slight warping in the neck. This is pretty common especially if your guitar hasn’t been adjusted in over four years. This isn’t necessarily the reason but is the most likely reason – check out the link below to check to see if your neck is straight. If it’s not straight – or with a very slight relief as most guitarists prefer. The link below should explain it. You can fix this by doing a Truss Rod adjustment. The article below shows how to do this too, but a lot of people prefer to get someone else to do it for them so they don’t risk making things worse.

I haven’t played the CD 140sce, so I couldn’t say for sure. But in theory, based on the specs, they seem to be quite similar guitars (both dreadnoughts, both with a solid spruce top and laminate mahogany back and sides). I’d say the main difference to weigh up is the look. The CD-140sce is a more classic looking acoustic guitar, whilst the Sonoran is more unique in its appearance. I can’t say which I would recommend because I haven’t played both – but I suspect that the main choice will come down to aesthetics in this case.

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